Rumpelstiltskin's wardrobe
by The cursed child
Summary: Rumpelstiltskin thinks of a Plan B while in his cage, and decides to turn it into his Plan A. Why wait three decades when you have the option to find your son sooner?


Queen Snow and her Charming stop by exactly on time, and he weasels the name of their child from the woman's lips with little difficulty. It isn't like he will harm the girl with her name.

A part of him admires little Snow, so different from any other pretty Princess he's ever dealt with. A thief and a survivor, yet purer than any other creature he had ever seen. Not a speck of black had invaded her heart, unlike the black mass in his own chest.

He focuses the dark part of his curse on the soon-to-be-born-Princess' name, letting the psychotic voices in his head obsess over Emma. It's such a common name, more fit for a peasant than a princess. Then again, her parents are a shepherd and a thief, so he isn't all that surprised.

The longer he's locked up, the stronger the voices get. He's managed to silence them since the curse was activated, a long time after he lost Bae, but the isolation brings them back to the forefront of his mind.

A distracted Rumplestiltskin searches in the wall of the cave for the bottle of squid ink he hid there, and reaches even further to grab an insignificant roll of parchment. He writes 'Emma' until the muscles in his hand starts to cramp, stiff from the excersise.

While his hand moves he weaves magic into the spell, ensuring that the curse's hold will fail the first time he hears the savior's name spoken out loud. It's tricky, because his magic is being suffocated in his cell, just beyond his reach. He manages eventually by reforming the magic from the ink in the bottle, and sits back to enjoy his handy work.

All he has to do now is wait for Regina to make a deal, and then the curse will be ready to activate exactly on time, just as planned. But waiting isn't exactly his strong suit, so he starts a little side project.

It takes him a far too long, but he finally convinces one of the guards to tell him what is happening where the sun shines. He knows most of it of course, his powers see to that, but the timing has to be exactly right, and guessing right now will make decades worth of deals and energy worthless.

His newest best friend is smart enough not to make a deal with him. The Dark One pouts and whinges and giggles madly, but the guard refuses to fold. Maybe Rumple should challenge him for a game of poker, he would win every time.

Even though the guy is no fun, he is useful, if only because he knows what the Blue Fairy is planning.

He can't believe he didn't think of it.

An enchanted tree. Of course! How could he have missed that? Three centuries worth of planning and he forgets that the last enchanted tree could bring him to his son.

There is the fact that he couldn't have gotten near the tree without killing every fairy in existence, but details are unimportant, he would've found a way.

He doesn't have to this time, though, because the wardrobe is located in the castle where he has visited dozens of times, without any further protection.

He giggles, and his friend dumps some food in his cell before disappearing around the corner.

Rumple giggles louder, grabbing the parchment meant for the pretty blonde savior and blows.

The destruction of the magical barrier is hidden by the insane sounding noise that emits from his throat, and he feels the bonds on his magic evaporate.

With a tricky bit of magic he morphs one of the guards into a Rumpelstiltskin look-alike and traps him in the cell, after which he twirls and disappears in a cloud of smoke.

When Regina comes looking for him when the curse fails the first time, she sees right through the disguise and wonders if Snow White ever captured the real deal-maker. She knows for sure that he's been in the cave when a magical force throws her into the cell and binds her magic, leaving her powerless and alone.

The spinner arrives in the familiar castle and tries to finds Snow White first. Who is he to separate this couple and their child when Emma no longer needs to save anyone from the Evil Queen?

Rumpelstiltskin finds the King and Queen in their bedroom, in the middle of giving birth, just like the old plan called for. He observes them for a minute, wondering how Emma would turn out now that she could grow up under her parent's guidance. The powers he stole from the Seer don't give him an answer.

Satisfied with the timing of Emma's arrival into this world, he finds himself with Gepetto and his formerly wooden son. He waits for the moment to arrive, ready to say goodbye to this world with one last dramatic appearance.

When the old man is seconds away from condemning his son to a world without his father, the not-quite man steps in.

"What are you doing here!" yells a surprised Gepetto when he spots the beast.

"Don't you worry, I'm just here to steal your wardrobe," Rumpelstiltskin states with a smile.

He looks the old man up and down and wrinkles his nose. "The closet, not your clothes," he adds, as if that wasn't obvious.

"I won't let you!" says the woodworker, standing between the Dark One and the magical object. "The second spot is for my son!."

Rumple, who hadn't known there were two spots, couldn't help but laugh at the stupid idea. Which idiot would sent two small children into an unknown world and expect them to rescue a whole realm almost three decades later?

Thank god for his Plan B, they would've been toast otherwise. Mmmmh, toast. Maybe he should've eaten something before he left.

"Don't you worry," he says, reappearing behind Gepetto and patting Pinocchio on the head, "The curse is no longer important, and The Evil Queen is in my pretty cage."

With that, he lays a hand upon the closet and magics himself back to his own castle.

Once there, he grabs his bottle with true love and a few other knickknacks, puts them in a satchel and takes one last look around, grabbing some toast that appears out of thin air.

He would be seeing Bae before the end of the year, he knew it.


End file.
